BOOK REVIEW: "No Motive For Murder" by Doug Hantke

A man obsessed with his work.
Psychologist Gary Schaade started receiving tapes and letters from potential killers soon after releasing his bestselling book Psyche of a Serial Killer.
When Gary receives a tape at his office, he is sure it is another entertaining attempt to scare him and his wife. This tape was different.

A confession to prove his theory.
Gary always theorized that the deadliest of serial killers were ones without motive. As more tapes arrive, it becomes obvious that Gary may finally have the confession he’s needed to prove it. But how far will he go?

A killer who strikes close to home.
When the murders get more personal, Gary will have a difficult choice to make. Will he sacrifice the lives of those close to him to further his career?
Is it truly possible to have No Motive for Murder?

[NOTE: Yes, I am the proud editor of this book. No, my review does not reflect on that fact. I never, EVER grade books on editing, just on plot, character development and originality.]

When I'm asked to edit a book, I'm not picky about the content. I want to see what you've done wrong and fix it. When I'm asked to review a book, however, I'm so picky you might not believe it.
Thrillers, the bloodier the better, are a favorite of mine. It takes a lot of talent to creep readers out using only humans as your subject matter, not paranormal creatures. Stephen King and Thomas Harris have perfected that art, but precious few others have.
Doug Hantke has.
As I read through the story as a reader, not an editor, I realized how truly gripping the simplistic narrative was; how you could picture every bloody scene with violent vision and feel what Gary was feeling, every step of the way.
Gary is not exactly a sympathetic character. He speaks ill of his patients, doesn't pay enough attention to his wife and flirts with a particular patient. But that's part of the story's charm. You don't have to like a character to like said character's story.
The story itself has multiple possible endings, each of them plausible and easy to picture. I had a solid guess at who the killer was, changed my mind, and then changed it back before the story ended. Hantke is a master of misdirection!
Honestly, this is one of my favorite books. I'm so proud to have been able to be a small part of its creation. Remember this author's name: you're going to be seeing it on the New York Times bestseller list one of these days!

5/5--a gripping, gruesome thriller!

No Motive For Murder is live on Amazon: 

http://www.amazon.com/No-Motive-Murder-Doug-Hantke-ebook/dp/B00V3YYJ4K/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427159534&sr=1-2

You can add it on Goodreads now!

BOOK REVIEW: "Acts Of Violence" by Ross Harrison

- My name’s Jack Mason. I made a mistake. Took home the wrong girl. Now she’s dead. Cut up. And they’re telling me I did it.
It’s the same cop that tried to take me down ten years ago. Now he’s coming at me hard. And he’s not the only one. Cole Webster, the city’s crime lord, thinks I stole from him. Broke me out of custody just to ask me about it. Then I killed his son. Now he really wants me.
Add to this equation a government agent, and I’m a real popular guy right now. Pretty much everyone I meet wants me dead, lawfully or otherwise. There’s nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. I’ve got till morning to uncover Webster’s trafficking operation and take the heat off me. And all I’ve got to go on is a pissed off homeless girl with a thirst for revenge.
Guess it could be worse. Can’t quite figure how. -

Jack hates violence against women, but he winds up standing up for the wrong girl, and gets wrongfully arrested for her murder. The murder itself is a very bloody affair, a bit of shock in an already fast-paced novel. You don't see it happen, but the description of the body is delightfully gory.
This book takes you inside Jack's head, you read his thought process as if you were psychic. But you really don't get to know him. It takes the course of the entire novel for you to accurately put together a good mental picture of him, both physically and mentally. He's enigmatic, even with himself, and that makes this story that much better.
Another thing I noticed, is that you don't realize you're reading a sci-fi novel until he mentions that it's a planet called Harem. And you don't care if it's sci-fi or not. You just care if Jack will succeed. Hardcore fans of sci-fi might not like this lighthearted approach to the genre, but I think Mr. Harrison did it quite well. He brought sci-fi to people who might not read it otherwise.
The book is a fast, three hour read, filled with mystery and suspense. The narration is very unique and very realistic. When I finished, I had one question, "When is the movie coming out and please tell me Richard Armitage is available for the lead role!"

4/5--A great take on sci-fi and crime noir!

Purchase Acts Of Violence via:

Official site (has links to Amazon, Amazon UK, NOOK and more!)

BOOK REVIEW: "October Harvest" by Douglas Draa

(Story is currently being serialized in Schlock Magazine; link will be below.)

Horror author Douglas Draa scared us to death with his story in Wishful Thinking, and he's here to do it again with October Harvest, the story of delinquents who try to rob the rich pumpkin farmer in their town and get much more than they bargained for.
The story isn't just a frightening ride with evil scarecrows, a crazy farmer and stupid victims. There's a small moral in here, too, in what happens with the kids who trespass on the farm, and I love that. Few horror authors bother to write anything into their stories that isn't just there to give the readers nightmares.
Some parts of the story were absolutely disgusting, I'll admit it. I actually cringed at one point, which I thank Mr. Draa for. Rarely do I get scared or squeamish anymore.
I can't say much else about October Harvest, because it's a short story, and I don't want to give anything away. But I will say that I loved reading this, and I think everyone should become a fan of Douglas Draa now, before he blows up in the horror scene! (By the by, this only gets a four instead of a five only because I don't think it's a story anyone could read. You do need to like horror already to enjoy October Harvest: this is not a good introduction to the genre.)

4/5--gave me chills!

Purchase Schlock Magazine on Amazon to read October Harvest!

BOOK REVIEW: "Adoptive Personality" by Cassandra Scearce

After killing her alcoholic father and discovering the she was adopted, Eve begins to suspect her abuse and molestation at his hands was orchestrated the moment she was given up.
As Eve makes her way through life, she discovers a love and passion for sex. After sex had become an act she could not see herself ever doing again, she has come to realize how addicting it is. Now she can't get enough of it, and she'll use her addiction in order to see her revenge take shape.
Eve hasn't given up on her birth mother or her suspicions that she is to blame for the horrific childhood she suffered. Eve is determined to uncover the truth behind her abuse, no matter how many people she has to kill.

WARNING: Adoptive Personality is not for anyone under the age of eighteen, as it describes serious sexual abuse.

I have a love/hate relationship with books that are so set in harsh reality like this one, because I say that books are supposed to take you from reality, not drag you further in. With Adoptive Personality, you're taken straight into Earth's version of Hell, with a young girl being viciously abused by whom she believes is her father.
Eve is not a sympathetic character, believe it or not. Her life has, naturally, made her hard, but she's not just tough and damaged: she's a killer. She's been truly broken by her ordeals, but somehow I had little sympathy for her.
The story is very dark, very real and shows the birth of a whole new kind of serial killer. Because, make no mistake, Eve is a very cunning serial killer, plotting each one and fooling everyone. It's not as vicious as most of the more popular books about murder, because it's also very emotional, concentrating on why Eve is the way she is.
While this is a very dark book, it's one of the best written ones I've read that deal with this subject matter. For everyone? Definitely not. But I highly recommend it!

4/5--well-written and makes you think!

Purchase Adoptive Personality via:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23128298-adoptive-personality

BOOK REVIEW: "Unsavory Delicacies" by Russell Brooks

While I'm more used to short story collections having five or more tales, Unsavory Delicacies by Russell Brooks doesn't need more than the three he included to be worth your time and money.
It begins with an ex-Mossad agent about to assassinate a man giving her sensitive information and ends with the same man infiltrating a Russian Mafioso's club and finding a strange surprise. In the middle, you have a disturbing story about a chef who avenges his honor on the food critic who cost him his job once before.

Revenge. Espionage. Death. What more do you need for a half-hour's worth of entertainment? The stories are well-written and very well planned out. They're actually little unsavory delicacies in themselves! Like I said, they're eerily disturbing, like Rod Serling could have written them.
There are no monsters, there's no sex, nothing that people think they need to incorporate into their work. It's parts humanity in its most animalistic forms: self-preservation, vengeful and secretive.
A great read!

4/5--delightful!

Purchase Unsavory Delicacies via:

Official site

BOOK REVIEW: "Another Day At The Office" by James DeSantis

On the outside, the main character in Another Day At The Office has a good life. He has a good job, a loving wife, and good friends. But there are secrets. And betrayals. Until he decides, today won't be just another day at the office.

I've always believed that a monotonous life, the "American Dream", doesn't really exist, and those who claim to have achieved that dream are either liars or kidding themselves.
In this story, the American Dream falls apart in front of the reader's eyes. Lies come to surface and it brings a very normal man to the breaking point. Think Michael Douglas in Falling Down on a much more personal level.
It's violent, yes, abd entertaining, but it also makes you think. A definite must read, and it'll only take you about twenty minutes to finish! I was very privileged to be the editor for this story, and I hope you all like it as much as I did the first time I read it.

5/5--thought-provoking.

Purchase Another Day At The Office via:

Amazon

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: J.J. Stone

1. When/why did you decide to become a writer?

I became a writer because it felt like the right thing to do. I know that might be a boring answer, but it's the truth. When I was growing up, I always had different story ideas wandering around my head, but I couldn't do much with them. It wasn't until I got my Masters in Creative Writing that I really "unlocked" the author living in the back of my mind all these years and let her flex her writing muscles. 
By day, I am a freelance copywriter, so writing is truly my job. But writing fiction is like therapy for me. I get to go off into these worlds and lives that I've created and just have fun. 

2. What authors inspired you when you were younger? What books do you enjoy reading today?

I was a HUGE Star Wars nerd when I was younger, so I think I've read just about every Star Wars book there is. Troy Denning was one of my favorite authors, for sure. Today, my tastes have changed just a tad. Gillian Flynn is my new favorite author. I often joke that she's the author I want to be when I grow up. From her genre to writing style, she is the epitome of the kind of author I want to be. 

3. What was the inspiration behind your novel The Mirror Stage?

My love of crime shows, for sure. There aren't many crime shows I'm not watching. I really wanted to take that affinity and see if I could take all the parts of shows that I enjoyed and create my own story.
There are a lot of pieces of me in this book. I set it in Seattle because I'm absolutely in love with that city. It's where my husband and I honeymooned (we actually stayed on Whidbey Island!) and I really connected with that place. I also wanted to write a story that was more than just a crime thriller. While one of the main themes of the story is an FBI investigation, I also wanted to make it a story about change and acceptance and coming to terms with parts of yourself that you have spent years burying. 

4. Why decide to make it a trilogy?

To provide a little backstory, The Mirror Stage was written originally as a One Hour TV Show script for my thesis project for my Masters degree. As part of the project, I had to create a show bible that included a 13-episode story arc. After I graduated, I knew I wanted to really write this story that I'd spent a year working on. So the pilot episode I'd scripted became Book 1, and I decided to crunch the rest of the "season" into two other books.

5. Why did you make your main character a novelist? I always wonder, because every writer has a different reason.

Funny story: Ada was originally a criminology professor. But there were just too many gaps and issues with her teaching something that she is essentially terrified of. So I changed her to a novelist. I did this because, in my mind, she wants to write about crimes that she controls the ending of. She didn't have a say in how her crime story ended, so now she controls the endings. 

6. Were any of the characters personalities or emotions taken from real life?

I wouldn't say any were taken from real life, but I definitely spent a long time figuring out who my favorite characters have been over the years. Once I had that list, I picked out the personalities and quirks I gravitated toward and clumped those into the characters in The Mirror Stage. 

7. What other genres would you like to try your hand at?

I think YA might be fun to try. I also love reading dystopian books, so maybe one day I'll try that!

8. Are you a fan of serial killers? Do they interest you?

I literally don't know how to answer this without sounding completely creepy! They do interest me, simply because of how differently their thought processes run. They are such complex personalities, they are so easy to make incredibly intriguing. 

9. Will we learn more about James's past in book two?

Absolutely. Book 2 is (drum roll please) titled The Imaginary, and it will dig deeper into basically character. I'm sure authors aren't supposed to play favorites, but James might actually be my favorite character. I go back and forth between him and Ada. In The Imaginary, we will get a better idea of why he's searching for his sister. We'll also meet the team's actual analyst, Janice Otto, which is going to provide an interesting dynamic to the investigation when we pick back up with the story. 
I know most people were in a love/hate relationship with James by the end of The Mirror Stage, but I'm hoping that by the end of The Imaginary, everyone will be rooting for him more than loathing him. 

10. You said that The Mirror Stage was originally a screenplay for college. Would you like to see it as a film? If yes, who do you want to star in it?

A film would be interesting! It was laid out to be a TV show, so I think that would still be the best medium for it. 
As far as who would play who...I'm not sure if this is another thing that authors are supposed to shy away from saying. I've heard some authors say that they don't want to set faces to their characters because then they're intruding on the reader's interpretation. I can understand that, but at the same time, I write these characters with specific "faces" in mind, so I want to see if who I've been picturing lines up with how everyone else sees the gang!
For Ada, I've gone back and forth between three actresses: Ana Giradot, Minka Kelly and Alicia Vikander. For James, it's always been Jensen Ackles. I am a massive Supernatural fan, and I love him as an actor. I honestly can't imagine anyone else playing James because Jensen Ackles has been his "face" in my mind since day one. Dade is another one that I've always had one actor in mind for: Theo James. Brenda is another toss up. I like either Thandie Newton or Zoe Saldana. She needs to be someone strong yet gentle.

11. Where do you see yourself and your career in the next ten years?

Still writing books! I'd love to be published traditionally, too. 

12. What would you be doing if you weren't writing?

Honestly, I have no idea. Writing is my job and my hobby!

13. Can you tell KSR what you're working on next?

Book 3 of The Imago Trilogy! It's actually pretty bittersweet to be getting ready to close this story out. It's been part of my life for a little over two years now! The Imaginary is about to release, as well, and I can't wait to share the next part of the story with everyone. 

14. What authors, dead or alive, would you like to collaborate with?

J.K. Rowling. Is that a lame answer? The journey she went through to become an author is similar to mine, and I think we would have a lot of fun.

15. Thank you for participating in the interview. Can you please leave the readers with three things that may surprise them about you?

1. I was having trouble coming up with new character names. As I was walking one of my Great Danes, we passed by a cemetery and I started scanning tombstones without thinking about it. Oddly enough, I think I found the name I was wracking my brain for!
2. I think clowns are the most terrifying things. Ever. 
3. Opening presents in front of people stresses me out.

Find Ms. Stone online via:

Official site

Facebook

Twitter

Goodreads

BOOK REVIEW: "The Mirror Stage" by J.J. Stone

When Ada Brant was a little girl, she witnessed the murder of her mother by her father's hands and has never been the same. She still bares the emotional scars twenty-five years after the incident.
She's a crime novelist and professor when her uncle, an ex-FBI agent, brings in two colleagues who need Ada's help as a local analyst. A serial killer is on the loose in Seattle, and if Ada doesn't face her demons and do something, who knows why might be next?

In J.J. Stone's first novel, The Mirror Stage, you're immediately tossed into Ada's messed up world of hurt and death. You meet Ada, and she seems like a pitiable character...until you get to know her. She's strong, stubborn, resilient and deeply scarred...but also deeply clever. She's a leading lady with a brain instead of great boobs, and that's what I liked most about her.
Then you've got Agent James Deacon, who's the biggest jerk you could imagine, but he has his own demons, which you'll learn about as the book goes on. He's a jerk, but he's a kind, good-looking jerk, and that makes him an unlikely but excellent male lead.
Even the killer has a story, one you'll have to read to understand.
The supporting characters, like Brenda and Dade, are great. Even the dog, Tiny, is likable. There's also a character that only makes a small appearance, Janice, that I think we need to look out for in the next two books.
The plot is straightforward, at first. It then begins to take a road so winding you'll need a map to follow. No one is safe, and the killer is on the run. I love thrillers and crime novels, and this one is one if my favorites now. The cliffhanger at the end will keep me on my toes till book two is released.
While there were some editing errors, I loved this book. A great, fast-paced read!

5/5--you need this on your TBR list!

Purchase The Mirror Stage via:

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iBooks

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Ryan McSwain

1. When/why did you decide to become a writer?

I’ve always loved writing—I was the weird kid that got excited about school writing assignments. A good thing, too, because my papers usually saved my grades from my test scores. It just took time to figure out how to write fiction that was worth sharing.

2. What authors inspired you when you were younger? What books do you enjoy reading today?

As a young kid, I read non-stop. I loved Baum’s Oz series, the Alice books, Tolkien, and that classic, Ralph Fozbek and the Amazing Black Hole Patrol. And comic books, always comic books. When I got a little older, I was all about Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, J.D. Salinger, Spider Robinson, Philip K. Dick, and H.P. Lovecraft. And comics by folks like Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, and Warren Ellis.
Right now, I’m mostly doing research for my next book. But I’m getting into the works of Haruki Murakami and Gabriel García Márquez, and I just finished The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan). One of my favorites is the underrated Lucky Wander Boy by D.B. Weiss.

3. What was the inspiration behind your novel Monsters All The Way Down?

The premise bounced around in my head for about ten years, and it was reading too much Philip K. Dick that I finally figured out how to make it work. It started as my take on a PKD paranoia thriller set in modern times, and the Lovecraftian elements crept in on their own. Musically, I found a lot of inspiration in The Mountain Goats’ Heretic Pride album. The road trip element of the book definitely comes from my love of Supernatural.

4. What would you do in Brennan's predicament?

Get killed around chapter four! Seriously, though, Brennan is miles away from being an author surrogate, but much of what he does in his early investigation comes from how I would try and figure things out. A big difference between Brennan and me is that I have a support system of friends and family. I like to think I have people I could call if I really got into trouble.

5. You say you're a stay at home dad and former youth pastor. How have those things effected your work, if they have effected it all?

Being a youth pastor was very fulfilling, but it was emotionally exhausting and left me drained creatively. I thought being a stay-at-home dad would give me time to write, and it did—at first. Once my son stopped napping most of the day, there wasn’t room for anything else. I had plenty of ideas, but no time to write the stories. Monsters All the Way Down was written and revised in about three years of staying up too late. I realized I couldn’t be a good dad without sleep, so now I do most of my writing in marathon stints on Sundays.
I’ve blogged about the challenges of writing and being a stay-at-home parent, if anyone would like to check out my site.

6. Were any of the characters personalities or emotions taken from real life?

Some of the conflict in the book has its roots in the sibling rivalry I used to have with my younger brother. He’s a great guy, and amazingly talented, so it was strange to have him coming up behind me, able to do some of the things I did, only so much better.

7. What other genres would you like to try your hand at?

My next book is going to fall in the superhero novel category, although there’s a lot more to it than capes and punches. There’s a YA murder mystery I’ve been dying to get down on paper. There are quite a few sci-fi and literary fiction ideas to try out..

8. If you could successfully clone a human, who would you clone and why?

I have a couple of friends, Dustin and Jon, who are self-disciplined, intelligent, and focused. If I had an army of either one, I could take over the world in a fortnight. If you cloned me, you’d just have a roomful of folks pondering their existence and identity.

9. Was there any intended symbolism behind the fact that, out of all the clones who acted pretty much the same, Brennan was different?

(I’d rather not have this big a spoiler in the interview, if that’s all right. Could you rephrase the question or leave it out?). There’s some nature versus nurture going on there. It’s scary to think how much our heritage and upbringing are out of our control.

10. Would you like to see Monsters All The Way Down as a film? If yes, who do you want to have play your characters?

I would love to see it as a film—I could cameo as one of the decapitated heads. As for casting, I’d hate for my word of god to steal the opportunity for people to cast it themselves. But the only character I really had cast in my head was Benjamin Rosen, the guy in the ruffled tuxedo. I think a young Rufus Sewel (Dark City; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) would be perfect for the part.

11. Where do you see yourself and your career in the next ten years?

I’d love to get to the point where I can put out a book a year, preferably one every six months. If getting my work out there leads to paying the bills, all the better.

12. What would you be doing if you weren't writing?

I’ll always have my safe, mature backup plan of becoming a magician.

13. Can you tell KSR what you're working on next?

Definitely! My next book is about comic books, obsession, and the nature of reality. It will be the second book in a very loose trilogy, so it shares themes, settings, and maybe a few characters with Monsters All the Way Down. It’s currently in revisions, and the plan is to launch a kickstarter in the spring to raise money for illustrators.

14 . What authors, dead or alive, would you like to collaborate with?

It kills me that Philip K. Dick never finished The Owl in Daylight, so I’d be happy to bring him coffee so he could give us some closure. And I would do just about anything to be the Royal Historian of Oz—does that count? 

15. Thank you for participating in the interview. Can you please leave the readers with three things that may surprise them about you?

Thank you for the opportunity—this has been great fun! As for three things, (1) I think it’s healthy to be offended at least once a day. (2) I cry at movies. (3) I used to ride a pretty mean unicycle.

Find Mr. McSwain online via 

Author Website: http://www.ryanmcswain.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanmcswain

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryanmcswainwrites

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4878662.Ryan_McSwain

BOOK REVIEW: "Monsters All The Way Down" by Ryan McSwain

What would you do if you were waned for murders you didn't commit and the suspect sketch looked just like you? Worse still, you knew all the victims!
For Brennan Wade, when that happens, he goes on the hunt for the man framing him but what he finds just might push him over the edge...

Monsters All The Way Down by Ryan McSwain (Pithos Publishing) shocked me. I have read a lot of thrillers and watched a lot of crime shows/movies. Rarely does a suspect turn out like this, which is why I'd classify this as sci-fi as well as a thriller.
I can't review this as thoroughly as I do others because I can't give too many spoilers. This is a book you HAVE to read for yourself!
I can't say the characters are great, but there is great development of them all and the narration is wonderful. Joan, Brennan and even Tom are all unique, with individual personalities and a very strange story. At some points, I'd even go so far as to call it twisted.
You've never read anything like this!

5/5--wonderful!

Purchase Monsters All The Way Down via:

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